BFI Study Day

Film openings 1 copy from petefrasers

 

Film openings 2 from petefrasers

On Thursday 21st November, our A level media class visited the BFI (British Film Institute) in South Bank, London, to learn some important information on opening sequences concerning how the how they are made professionally, what they need to include and tips on how to make an opening sequence for when we make them later in the year.

 

The lecture was started by Pete Fraser who began with the 5 aspects of genre, narrative and how important enigma is when trying to give the audience questions that will make them watch on.
He then showed three different opening sequence from known films, this included "Catch Me If You Can", "Dawn Of The Dead" and "Napoleon Dynamite". Each of the sequences showed an alternative way in which to present the credits, each of them very different from the other. This was achieved through setting, atmosphere, music and character. This was a very positive thing as we gained some vital knowledge from experienced professionals.

We then watched and analysed some amateur opening title sequences with Pete going through the positives and negatives. This included that films such as Juno includes 24 credit cards whereas many amateur producer forget to include enough, making it seems unrealistic.

 

Another topic that was discussed was Foley. This is the technique of replacing amateur sounds with crisp and professional sounds that you want. We also learnt that our opening title sequences should be no longer than 2 minutes.